1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrical connectors and more particularly to methods of manufacturing micro miniature electrical connectors. 2. Brief Description of Prior Developments
Conventional means for locking terminals into their plastic housings include stamped barbs that dig into the dividing plastic walls to provide the required terminal retention. Other such means include plastic latches, embossed terminal geometry that presses into a plastic cavity, protruding metal that catches a plastic wall, and the like.
As connector development moves further towards miniaturization, the space for plastic walls and ledges between terminals becomes reduced to the point that there is not sufficient size and structure available for these conventional approaches.
As a result, many miniaturized connector designs are achieving terminal retention by way of an insert molding process where the molten resin flows around the terminals geometry during the molding operation of the connector building process. Although this method is effective, it is also expensive due to the slow molding cycle times as a result of the need to load and manage the individual or segmented terminals. A process that includes traditionally molded housings that receive terminals in a subsequent operation can normally be more cost effective.
A need, therefore, exists for a low cost non-barbed connector that an be manufactured without insert molding which maintains functional characteristics of the prior art barbed, insert molded connectors.
The present invention is a micro miniature electrical connector element which is manufactured by first providing an axial insulative member having a conductive terminal retaining means. An insulative housing which has a peripheral wall and an axial opening is also provided. The axial insulative member is inserted into the axial opening such that the conductive terminal is fixed in the conductive terminal retaining means. This connector element is non-barbed and may be manufactured without insert molding.